Student designs adaptive stroller for mother in a wheelchair

As a paraplegic and wheelchair user, when Sharina Jones became pregnant with her first child she immediately started to think about finding solution to the challenges she would face being a disabled mother. One of those challenges was how she would be able to push her baby’s stroller while pushing her own wheelchair at the same time. “I was thinking ahead, because you always have to think ahead. After that first doctor’s appointment, we started asking, ‘How are we going to do this? And this? And this?’”, Rashida explains.

While in her search for a solution, a friend told her about a program that challenges high school students to develop STEM project, some of which are aimed and creating adaptive solutions for people with special needs. So, Rashida got in touch with the program’s coordinator and was matched with 16 year-old Alden Kane.

For 6 months, Alden worked with Rashida to create the stroller, testing different designs, prototypes and materials. The final product is a frame made up of stainless still that is completely costum made for Rashida’s needs. As Alden explains, “It’s not so much a stroller where you’d want to use it independently. It’s designed specifically to attach to a wheelchair. In a sense, it is a stroller, but instead of a person pushing it, a wheelchair pushes it.”

The stroller was ready in the perfect timing, when the baby was just two weeks old, and the mother couldn’t be happier with it. “I love it. It makes everything so much easier”, Rashida says.

Adapted from: https://www.today.com/parents/mom-takes-baby-walks-special-wheelchair-st...